Tag: life lessons

Yesterday was my day to work with the kids in the garden. It was a sad day when we discovered that the insides of our compost bin are no Bueno, and we have to start over. Almost three months of work down the toilet. Life can get super symbolic sometimes. When I got home, I dug deep in my own compost and found that it smelled like SHIT, literally. SHIT underneath all the newer leaves and produce. So, yea. Sometimes even if we are working on a project, if we don’t take care of it, it gets rotten, and we have no choice but to start over. It can seem daunting or painful to start over, but you can’t keep rotten stuff around. Starting over is what is necessary.

I swear, gardening has been the great metaphor for my life and probably most people’s lives in general. There are things we have to take care of properly. Sometimes I think just caring for life in general is like a science. We can care for anything in the same way we care for a garden. We have to water it everyday, give it sunlight, good soil, talk to it, pull weeds, prune, trim, and pull out dead things. If we do, then we get beautiful, healthy results. If we don’t care for things properly, they get bad, and bacteria forms. The smell of rot becomes undeniable. Eh, I’ll be removing my compost next week on trash day and starting over.

And we will be clearing out the compost bin at the school next week as well. Hey, it wasn’t time wasted. I learned greatly from just jumping in and starting something I knew hardly anything about. Nothing in life is a failure. Everything can be perceived as both success and failure, all at the same. It just depends on how you look at it. I look at most things as successes even if you have to lose something you worked hard to create. Maybe you didn’t know how to care for it, so it went bad. Better luck next time, eh?

So I think what I need to remember for the next compost is to add more dry ingredients and make sure I’m turning everything from the bottom up. I need to find a cover for my trashcan and make sure the rain doesn’t get in it because too much moisture is what seems to have killed my compost.

I’m not afraid of change, of starting over, of failure, of success. I’m in love with life’s lessons and challenges. I continue to keep an open mind and learn every day.